Egypt has sent an early warning at the ongoing 2024 International Table Tennis Africa Youth Championship as the team almost completed a clean sweep in the team events.
Yesterday, Egypt won three gold medals in the youth and cadet team events finals played at the Botho University Hall in Gaborone. In the team events, competing nations field three- to five-member squads and the first team to claim three victories in each game, wins the contest. Egypt successfully defended the cadet Under-15 boys and girls titles with 3-0 wins over rivals and tournament favourites, Tunisia. The team completed a treble with a 3-0 win over South Africa in the junior Under-19 girls team event. Egypt was denied a clean sweep in the team events by Tunisia as the latter sailed to a hard-fought 3-1 win in the Under-19 boys final. Heading into the fourth game, Tunisia held a slim 2-1 lead and had one of Africa's budding stars Wassim Essid to thank for taking the side over the line. The two-time cadet singles champion who was making his debut in the junior category proved to be a tough assignment for his opponent as he won his tie to give Tunisia its first gold medal of the tournament.
The side claimed the title from Nigeria currently absent in Gaborone. Egypt leads the medal table with three gold medals and the team's technical member and girls' coach, Passant Osman said her side could go all the way but is worried by the threat posed by Tunisia while she sees Uganda as a dark horse in the tournament. "For today and yesterday, it was very tough matches. We have never had easy matches against Tunisia but today it was a little bit easier we won 3-0 and for us (Tunisia) is a big threat. For the girls, I hope we will [win] all the last (available) gold medals, the Under-15 and Under-19 singles and all events.
In the mixed doubles, it is a maybe but we will try, and besides Tunisia, I think (we should be worried about) Uganda," said Osman on Wednesday evening. The home side, Junior Diteemane bagged a bronze medal in the Under-19 girls' team events while neighbours, South Africa came second and third in the Under-19 girls' and Under-19 boys' team events respectively. Zambia and Zimbabwe also bagged a bronze medal each in the team events that concluded on Wednesday. The championship continues with the double and singles events scheduled for today while the final matches are to be played on Sunday.
